A man had a blast from the past last weekend when he opened up his decades-old Apple computer.
Fordham University law professor John Pfaff found the Apple IIe computer in his parents’ attic on Sunday (February 17), and couldn’t resist taking it home to see if it works.
The third model of the Apple II series was released in 1983, with Pfaff believing his computer is at least 30 years old.
Although the professor didn’t think the computer would even turn on, he gave it a go anyway and was shocked it worked.
He excitedly shared the news on Twitter writing:
Oh. My. God. An Apple IIe. Sat in my parents’ attic for years. Decades. And it works.
Put in an old game disk. Asks if I want to restore a saved game. And finds one!
It must be 30 years old. I’m 10 years old again.
The original tweet went viral, and has received over 167,000 likes at time of writing (February 19).
Pfaff later shared images from the saved game of Adventureland but admitted ‘three decades later I can’t quite remember where I left off’.
He then tested several other old floppy disk games to see which ones would work, including Millionware, Olympic Decathlon, and Neuromancer.
Surprisingly they worked, taking Pfaff back to his childhood.
The best was yet to come though as Pfaff found a letter his dad typed to him in 1986 saved on the computer.
The discovery was particularly special for Pfaff since it has been a year since his father passed away.
Sharing a picture of the letter on the screen, the professor tweeted:
Just found this letter my dad typed to me in 1986, when I was 11 and at summer camp.
I REALLY WONDER what my theory about the daily newspaper comics Spider-Man was.
My dad passed away almost exactly a year ago. It’s amazing to come across something so ‘ordinary’ from him.
The letter saw Pfaff’s dad promise to keep the daily cartoons from the newspaper so the comics fan could read them when he returned home from camp.
As Pfaff mentioned in his tweet, at the time he had a theory about Spider-Man with his dad wanting to know if it’s true.
The letter concluded:
Hope that you are enjoying camp. The camp councillors that we talked with we liked.
Looks like you have a busy schedule, but also one which should be fun.
We are really looking forward to hearing about your adventures.
How sweet!
Now Pfaff needs to take it to an Apple Store and see just how smart these Apple Genius’ really are!
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